53rd Merdeka day

Today i would like to wish Malaysia happy 53rd birthday, Hari Merdeka or 1 Malaysia day. It has already 53 years we became big family and i wish all of us love each other with respect and maintain the harmony. Although we are multiracial, multi religion and multi language but we all are Malaysian!!! We born here, live here and this is our homeland, not China or India. At last, happy holiday and i hope you have your quality time with your family.

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower, it is a global symbol of Paris and it is one of the greatest monument in the world. Every year it attracted a lot of tourist visit this romantic place and bring France a lot of $$$$$. My wife like this tower very much and drive me to write this post. Both of us do have plan to visit Paris one day to enjoy this remarkable scenery. So in this post, i am going to introduce a little bit about Eiffel Tower based on my reading & understanding, hopefully everybody will know more about Eiffel tower.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel

Eiffel Tower was built in 1887 and finished at 1889, located on Champ de Mars in Paris. I don't know how to pronounce Champ de Mars in France, if you know, teach me. :). The tower was designed by a guy name Gustave Eiffel that you can see from right. Mmmm, right now we know how the tower name came from.  The tower is 1063 ft tall, about 81-storey height. According to Wikipedia, it was the tallest man made building until Chrysler Building in New York City completed built in 1930. The tower become the symbol/icon for both Paris and France. It also known as one of the most romantic place in the world for lovers.

Night view in blue

The whole tower weighs 10,00 tonnes and consists 7,300 tonnes of metal. Wah lou, 1ton = 1000kg leh, 7,300 tonnes meaning it use a lot of metal. I am sure our metal theft in Malaysia sure like Eiffel tower more than us. For maintenance wise, it is not easy too, every 7 years Paris need to apply 50 tonnes of brownish-grey/dark brown paint to protect it from rust. Pity to the paint worker...... i think my wife sure very happy if one day Paris decide to paint the tower into pink..... OMG...

Night view in yellow

If you plan to walk from ground to top, you will need to walk 1665 steps. But don't worry, the walkable steps by visitors only 704. Sorry, i will still take the lifts by paying some extra money. Another interesting fact is the tower height can varies up to 15cm due to thermal expansion from the metal. There is a restaurant at the tower and i heard it is very expensive.Ok lah, that's all what i want to write about Eiffel tower, thanks for reading. All the images copied from from internet.

Another night view

Streamyx Speedtest

Most of us subscribe Streamyx as our broadband provider. But how to ensure you get the speed that you subscribe to? mmm... It is always a bonus you get faster download speed but if too bad it is lower than what you suppose to get, then it is time to pick up your phone and call the operator to make some complain.

I subscribed 1Mbps package and most of the time i can get up to 1.5 to 1.7Mbps. So i hope you also can get faster speed than you subscribe. Let me know by leaving some comment. :)

Ok, below is the URL to test your broadband speed.

http://www.speedtest.net

HTC Wildfire

Wildfire is the new babies from HTC targeting the entry level smartphone market. The phone released in June 2010 and the price tag is about RM1100 +/- 10%. Very reasonable price for a smartphone and it should able to win a lot peoples heart that planning to own their first smartphone.


The OS won't let you down as it load with Android 2.1 and it is upgradeable to 2.2 which improve in a lot especially on the performance. Wildfire packed with 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor, 3.2-inch 320 x 240 capacitive LCD touchscreen, 384MB RAM and a 5-megapixel camera. The processor is a bit aging but hopefully it won't affect the overall performance. 


Wildfire is pack with their award wining apps HTC Sense UI. The live wallpapers are disable by default, i believe it is to lower the workload for the CPU. The 3.5mm jack shouldn't worry on the music listening. Most of the website said it is a bit disappointed the phone doesn't come with AMOLED. I believe HTC tried to bring the price low by giving up the pricey AMOLED. I always hope HTC will pack with more RAM so the the user can install more apps without worry is lack of memory space. Please see the video below for the review of the phone. Personally i will go to mall and test it out as well.

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

Top Gear - Bolivia

I share the Vietnam special in my last post. Today i am going to share the Bolivia special expedition. This round Clarkson, Hammond and May will start from Amazon jungle. They bought old second hand 4WD thru web and use it to go thru Jungle, desert and high mountain. Total distance is 1000 miles..frankly i won't survive that....what a adventure and personally i like this version very very much. Enjoy! personally i like Hammond because he is very funny and always kena bully by Clarkson







Part1 of 8


Part2 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTcXaEsqHMg&NR=1

Part3 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-y4aDHTRZg&feature=related

Part4 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj8ejEXTlN0&feature=related

Part5 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kgkKevYp8Y&feature=related

Part6 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6L6wjexxBY&feature=related

Part7 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggWIdzSuxY8&feature=related

Part8 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9KDcxYZeS8&feature=related

Canon 350D

Hi all, today i am going to share some photo from my first DSLR, Canon 350D/Kiss Rebel XT. Back then, i actually never thought i am going to own a DSLR until my wife gave it me as my birthday gift in year 2007.

Thanks to my lovely wife,  i like the gift very much. She always knew i dream to have a DSLR when i almost give up to take photo using my Panasonic FX07 after i knew it's limitation. I am not saying FX07 was a bad camera, it just can't perform in some angle, high ISO and faster shutter speed. Another reason is i kiam siap also. haha...


Canon 350D was equipped with its home made DIGIC II  image processor, (currently canon is using DIGIC IV). 8MP sensor with 7 point TTL and 1.8 inch TFT LCD. You might think the spec is outdated, but this is consider interesting spec back in 2007. The hand grip was a bit small to me but it still quite comfortable to hold. The downside is the LCD screen is too small and it was hardly seen under the sunlight. the ISO can up to 1600 but i recommend you to stick with ISO400 for normal shot as the noise may easily notice in 800 or even 1600. But i will still use ISO1600 for indoor shoot if without using flash

The camera came with 18-55mm kits lens non IS version. So in order
to get a steady shot, i always remind myself to maintain with min 1/60 or i might have blur shots. To do that you need to change the larger aperture or increase the ISO. If you were using IS lens, i believe you can take a shot without blur with 1/20. The battery was good and you can take up to 400 photos in a single charge without using much flash. Overall the camera did perform well and it only need a talent photographer to make use of it. The camera does not come with auto sensor cleaning, so after few times changing lens, i need to use blower to clean up my sensor to avoid dusk sitting on it. Ok lah..share example is better just talk talk and talk....

Hong Kong Tsing Ma Bridge, Hong Kong

Baby Breydon, Sungai Petani

Hua Lian, Taiwan

Pretty Lady, Penang

Kuantan Airport, Pahang

That's all for now, i will share more in the next post

Top Gear - Vietnam

I like cars, but i am not an expert. Just like i love to eat curry mee but it doesn't mean i know how to cook curry mee. So like other people that like cars, i like to watch TV car show too in order to get latest update on the new car release and the test drive result.

There are a lot of car show in TV or youtube. but among them, i like Top Gear from UK the most. It start to re-show in 2002 (if i am not mistaken) and through out the year the show had earn a lot of positive critics and a lot of negative critics too. I just a viewer, i found the show is nice and suite my taste, so who cares on the negative critics!!!. Excuse me, Top Gear won't pay me a single penny on promoting their show in this blog. But anyhow not many people viewing my blog also lah... haha... syok sendiri... 

Basically the show has 3 host, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond & James May. 3 of them are very funny and have their own characteristic. Funny is they can critic the car that they review till kow kow.. and they did some racing using the car with other machine, which i found very interesting instead of just race between car to car like other ordinary show did. But i like the most is their special edition, the will go to a country and use the limited budget they have to buy a car or a bike and use it to travel few thousand miles.. during the expedition, they faced a lot of problems and you will see how they use their creativity and innovative in solving the problem and continue the expedition till the end. Today i am going to share their expedition to Vietnam. Hope you guys like it 

Part1 of 8

Part2 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVWEOgrPkQk&feature=related

Part3 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TI1rcsDv-I&feature=related

Part4 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tmSyQ31Gak&feature=related

Part5 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFWR47Bu7Bg&feature=related

Part6 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcFyWTlgPZU&feature=related

Part7 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Qbhb9smKc&feature=related

Part8 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBv8u5jZDs4&feature=related

Samsung Wave

I would like to talk about smartphone in this post, mmm...instead of talking about iPhone4 or Android phone, i choose to talk about Samsung Wave. What so special about this phone? from hardware standpoint, the spec is quite standard, no more and no less compare to other smartphone manufacturer like HTC, Sony Ericsson, Iphone and etc. The only thing that grab my interest is the OS, this is the first device from Samsung phone series that running on its home made OS, Bada. what the heck is Bada? okay, Bada means "Ocean" in Korean. i think Samsung hope Bada can flood the world smartphone market with this Wave...what a nice name ah... this is the first wave of Bada.

Wave comes with Google widget so that you can have quick access to maps, mail and it star search. It is also preloaded with Twitter, Facebook, Youtube & BBC Iplayer apps. Internet access is via Dolphin browser, another home made apps by Samsung. I never hands on at this phone, but from the YouTube video, it seems dolphin is very simple to use and it should be no problem for you to surf the web without any issue. Wave is come with 1GHz ARM CPU. So i think you won't feel lag when running your favorite apps.

I check our local website, the price tag is about RM1.4k to RM1.6k, but i believe you can get cheaper price at the phone selling counter in shopping mall with using your pasar malam bargain skills to get the best discount price. Overall, it should be a good phone to own by looking at the price and overall spec. Personally i think there is one downside about this phone which is Bada. The OS is very new and i bet you hardly get variety apps from web especially the unpaid version, which is always suit my taste (kiamsiap) people like me. So it is a challenge to Samsung how to make Bada famous compare to Iphone, Android or even Window mobile which have already thousands of apps around the web.

Please check the YouTube video for more details introduction and hands on. Enjoy!!!

Other Spec

• 3.3 inch AMOLED screen
• 118g
• 5MP camera with LED flash
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11n
• GPS
• 3.5mm ear jack

Google Reader

When i creating this blog, i found Google suggest the user to use Google reader to consolidate multiple blog/sites update into a single page view. Google reader will constantly track your favorite blog or website once it release a new content. I think i would be rich right now if i am the one came out with this idea and sell it to google. :)

Anyway, you might know this a lot more earlier than me. But for the lazy people like me, i think it is very useful because it avoid you to open separate site to get the latest content. Try it when you have time and share me your experience. I attached the YouTube video in case you have no idea what i talking about. Remember to create a Gmail account before you use Google reader.

My first compact camera, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7 - Part 1

I bought my first compact camera in 2005 and the model was Panasonic DMC - FX07. Believe it or not, it was the first Panasonic compact camera that won the consumer heart and selling like hot cake at that time. So after FX07, all the subsequent model until year 2010 were design base on this model and of course continue to enhance it's features and spec. How's the the camera looks like? in order to save your time in googling, i attached the camera photo for you to have a look.

Panasonic FX7, photo from dpreview.com

The camera was equipped with a 5.1MP, 2.5 inch screen, 3x optical zoom with LEICA lens and using SD card as storage media. The main reason i bought this camera is because of the lens. LEICA is branded brand in photography world for it superb quality in producing camera lens. Panasonic really did a right thing in partner with LEICA to supply them a good lens. The camera was not cheap, it cost 1.6k for one. The camera handling was nice and easy to use and i was able to shoot some nice photos with it. The only potong stim (downside) of the camera is battery life. I only able to take 100 to 150 photos per charge and the battery can drain very fast if using night shot mode (long shutter mode) or using flash. No choice, i have to buy a backup battery when i travelling. If i am not mistaken, Panasonic did noticed about this problem on FX7 and they fixed it in FX9 by using higher capacity battery. Ok lah. talk to much no use also, let me share some photos i shoot using the camera. 

Marriott Shanghai

LA Disneyland

KLCC, Kuala Lumpur

Way to Crater Lake, Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregon

Tengkorak Beach, Langkawi

Okay, that's all for now, i will share more photos from this camera and my Canon SLR later on. Stay tune :)

Salt

Last Friday i attended my department team building at Penang Queensbay Mall. To be frank i always like team building because can eat free and most important no need to work on that day :). We have lunch at TGI Friday and i ordered Jack Daniel's Burger. Why choose Burger ah?? No special reason, i drank Jack Daniel before and it taste okay, so i believe the burger version must be good as well. The burger was nice but i took very long time to finish it due to the portion was really big. 2 to 3x compare to the roadside burger sell by our Malay friend .

After the nice lunch, all of us went to watch Angelina Jolie latest action movie, SALT. The story line quite simple and easy to understand, Angelina Jolie (Salt) was a spy work for CIA to North Korea. When the story goes, she actually a Russian and trained by the Russian bad guy during her young age and sent to US to work for US government and wait for the command from the Russian bad guy. After she found out her hubby were killed by her own Russian gang, she changed her mind and kill back the Russian gang and stop the bad guy launching nuclear bomb to Muslim country in middle east

mmmm, how do i feel about this movie, ok lah... the action was okay but i found the sounds is stunning, kudos to the sound mixing team. Angelina looks old and i can see wrinkle on her face... maybe she was too busy taking care her own kids in the past 1 year with sexy icon Brad Pitt. Quite disappointing (from man standpoint) she didn't wear any sexy clothes in that movie. i saw the trailer from youtube it did have some kissing scenes but in actual movie it was not.. i think our 1malaysia government already censored it make it to PG13 instead of PG18.. too bad...too bad....

Overall it is a decent movie and it worth for you to pay RM9/RM10 for it.
Enjoy, i include the youtube link into my blog. do watch it with your love one or friend if you have free time

Hello Everyone

Hi, my name is Ban. i am a ordinary guy living in Penang, Malaysia. Same as most of the people here in Northern region, i am working as engineer in a semiconductor company. I am posting my first blog here, so as usual let me introduce a bit about myself. i am quite interest in technology stuffs like smartphone, electronic gadget, computer gear, cameras, car, home theaters and etc.
I especially like taking photos and hence i owned a canon SLR which i am going to share some photos and experience into this blog later. OK, i think that's all for now, i am very excited and i am going to write/share more stuff/story in later blog. Sorry if you find my English grammar a bit weired in the series of blog later.. i am just a rojak malaysian who know few languages but not excel in one of it....(excuses :) )